Tuesday
of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time
November 18,
2014 6:30AM
I am holding here a copy of a
contemporary icon.
As you probably know, icons are a
special type of art.
Their origin lies in the early
centuries of the Greek and Russian churches.
Icons are painted with ancient
and special rules of color and form.
This particular icon is titled: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.”
This icon depicts the very words that
we hear in our first reading today.
Saint John is addressing the
people in some of the early Christian churches.
In his vision, he sees Jesus
speaking and saying: “Behold, I stand at
the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his
house and dine with him, and he with me.”
There are several features in the
icon which help us to appreciate what Jesus means in these words.
First, notice the movement in the
image of Jesus.
He is active, moving, in motion.
This conveys that Jesus is always
active with us and moving or reaching out to us, knocking on our door.
This process never ends in the
course of our lives.
Second, notice the door has no
handle on the outside.
It can only be opened from the
inside.
In our relationship with God, we are
to respond and open our hearts and minds to Jesus.
Jesus is there, knocking and
waiting, but also respecting us and our freedom whether or not to open up to
him.
And the last feature I want to
note this morning deals with light.
There is a darker background, but
the commentators note that the figure of Jesus casts no shadow.
The reason for this is that Jesus
brings only light and not darkness to us.
Also, the gold color in Jesus’
halo is a traditional artistic and religious symbol of uncreated light, the
divine light that Jesus is and brings to us.
That is something of the meaning
of the icon and of Jesus’ words in the Book of Revelation today.
